


a new kind of normal

by captaincastello



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 05:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12382302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captaincastello/pseuds/captaincastello
Summary: PROMPT: One guy's been spying on Adalind. So in one of the adalind scenes he says "Are you telling me that I'm guilty for exciting men? (With a mocking smile)"(a/n: set sometime after they move into Nick’s house and before the Fome)





	a new kind of normal

**Author's Note:**

> for [Maria_Lynch ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Maria_Lynch/pseuds/Maria_Lynch) who is the original source of this idea and who has been patient and kind enough to let me go about my turtle's pace in writing <3 i hope this is to your liking :)

She walks two steps in front, him wordlessly trailing behind, hands in his pockets as he notices the light of the bright sun trapped in her golden hair. She hums a carefree and happy tune as she pushes the stroller, her cheerfulness extending to Kelly who’s lightly giggling under his tiny blanket. Nick doesn’t notice any other noise, this sound being the only music to his ears.

“You can also walk beside me, you know,” Adalind says after a while, unknowingly surprising Nick when she stops in her tracks and turns around to address him. “I know I asked you to protect him, but you’re no bodyguard, Nick—you’re his father.”

Nick steadily holds her gaze for a moment—this has been how their conversations start, her saying something, him staring at her for a couple of seconds before actually answering. Now he’s a bit busy studying the sun captured in her irises, until he realizes with a slight warmth on his face that he’s been caught staring.

Wordlessly, and with a conscious effort to divert his eyes elsewhere, he closes the couple of steps that separate them, and while immensely aware of the adorable little victorious smile on Adalind’s face, he quietly walks and increases his efforts to look away instead.

It’s exactly because of this that Nick catches a shadow moving behind a cluster of trees in their far left - huge, like a grown man’s, yet agile like a cat, because within that split-second of discovery, whatever or whoever that was just vanished. Nick didn’t even have time to process the details—approximate body height and weight, skin color, hair color, any distinctive features—but there was one thing he was uncomfortable sure about, that this wasn’t the first time. Reflexively, he stops and steps closer to Adalind, his hand flying towards the stroller handle in a defensive maneuver.

“Oh, did you want to push?” Adalind says, somewhat surprised yet not in a bad way. “I mean, you could if you wanted to, you know.”

Nick doesn’t answer, his eyes still scanning for the trees. Whoever it was that caught his attention, he’s sure it was the same presence he’d felt around his house recently.

“Nick,” Adalind says behind him, her voice telling him that she has caught on some of his tension. “Is there something wrong?”

Nick finally turns to look at her and sees his worry mirrored in her face, their hands both firm and tight on the baby stroller. What surprises him is that the first thing on his mind isn’t about pursuing the mysterious character at all, but about how he’d rather relive the last five minutes of quietly walking behind Adalind and Kelly over and over again.

 

 

 

“One cop on alert in front of your house every day for the next couple of weeks until we apprehend your stalker—got it,” Hank says before he takes a sip of instant hot coffee. “You think this maybe one of Adalind’s old enemies or something? She did cause quite a lot of noise back in her Hexenbiest days.”

“If it was, then we could’ve been attacked earlier,” Nick says contemplatively, eyes idly resting on his untouched coffee. “We have Kelly, Adalind lost her powers, and I am working on cases most of the day, so there’re a lot of openings for anyone at all to strike… but this guy hasn’t. All he does is loom around in the vicinity, from what I can tell. I’ve felt him looking from outside the kitchen window when Adalind washes the dishes, or when she takes Kelly out by the porch, yet he hasn’t even done so much as to steal a potted plant from outside the house.”

Hank looks over at him thoughtfully, realization and a tiny amused smile playing on his lips.

“Wait, so this stalker is just a literal stalker, and no one is really in any imminent danger?”

“I’m still not dismissing any possibilities, Hank, I mean come on, that’s… that’s my kid and Adalind we’re talking about. They’re defenseless at the moment.”

“Okay,” Hank says, purposefully drawling out the last syllable, “But have you run this by her already? I mean, if this _was_ a literal stalker, it could be someone she knows, like from her old firm.”

“Why would an old colleague watch her from afar like a creepy guy with bad intentions, instead of just coming up to her to say hello?” Nick says, taking his first sip of coffee.

“Uh, she’s currently staying in another man’s house taking care of her second baby. Anyone who’s had the hots for her suddenly knowing all that wouldn’t exactly be knocking on your door to offer cookies.”

Nick says nothing for a moment as he thinks about what Hank just said. Apparently, maybe he should have bought 2 more cups of coffee from the machine downstairs. “Of course, that’s right… I mean, how could she not have anyone who has the hots for her, right…”

Hank’s barely contained snort takes him out of his reverie. They share a look and Nick suddenly feels like he’s laid himself too exposed. He clears his throat, diverts his eyes. Clearly, he has to stop this growing habit of his of averting his gaze.

“… Okay, so how do I run this by her?”

 

 

 

“Haha…! I’m sorry, but,” is Adalind’s immediate response with an accompanying clap of her hands, much to Nick’s surprise. She quickly recomposes herself though just so she can sport a teasing smile. “Are you telling me that I’m guilty for exciting men?”

 _With that attractive arch of your eyebrow, that vibrant merry laugh and radiant smile, YES_ \-- is what Nick’s brain is firing at the moment, but he chooses not to say any of that out loud. He refuses to say anything aloud because at the moment he’s too mesmerized by the sight of Adalind freely laughing so completely without regard for anything that he finds himself with no words to respond with. Since when have the scales of enmity and hostility begin to shed away for her to become this relaxed around him? And since when did he feel this comfortable around her to hold such a simple conversation without any fear for his own safety?

Since when has this become the new normal?

“Fence, this is new,” Adalind says to no one in particular as she wipes a tear from her eye. “It’s the first time I’m blamed for exciting a man.”

“Great, now I feel kind of embarrassed for bringing that up,” Nick says with a tiny grin because he can’t help but think that was actually kind of witty. He lightly rubs at the back of his neck and looks over at Kelly who has just started to giggle, following in chorus to match his mother’s hearty laugh.

“Oh, no, your concern is very much appreciated,” Adalind says, and this time it’s her turn to look slightly embarrassed, as if the full enormity of Nick’s concern for her and her baby’s well-being finally set in. “I mean, we can’t risk anything especially for Kelly’s safety.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Nick says, reflexively taking a step closer towards Adalind, and finding that he can’t handle being in such close proximity with her that he can catch a whiff of her shampoo, he immediately retreats. “So… there’s no one you can think of who… I mean, back in your old firm…?”

He hopes his voice doesn’t sound too small as they do in his own ears.

“Not that I know of,” Adalind says, and the way she purses her lips while in recollection makes Nick want to take out his phone to take a photo of her. Inwardly, he’s also filled with some sort of warmth that he has no other word for other than relief…

“… but wait, I think there was—“ Adalind quickly adds, but after seeing the instant change in Nick’s expression, she stops, and instead fills the room again with her cheerful laugh. “I’m just kidding, you don’t have to look so worried, Nick.”

“I’m not worried—I mean, I am, but it’s not what you think—”

“Oh? Then what is it I’m actually thinking?” Adalind says, her mischievous smile back on her face. Nick isn’t sure about how to respond—to deny whatever it is or to just smother his face on her face---

“Maybe we should bring some coffee to the officer on standby outside?” he quickly suggests, and before Adalind could reply, he disappears into the kitchen.

He hears her laughter once again, coupled by Kelly's tiny bubbly giggles and he thinks, with absolute peace in his mind, that yes, he'd like this new kind of normal.


End file.
